“There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it has to go somewhere.” — Annie Leonard
This quote fully explains the main problem of waste disposal. Even when awareness among the middle class has grown, there has still been no form of initiative on a large scale outside of non-government organizations and educational institutions. India is one of the world’s largest plastic consumers, but it does not have a proper recycling system.
Plastic is still widely used because it is cheap, lightweight, durable and waterproof. However, these same properties make it one of the most harmful materials for the environment because it decomposes slowly, leading to water and land pollution.
This raises an important question about what path India should take. Instead of relying heavily on measures like carbon tax, India should adopt a more effective system of turning plastic waste into value.

My idea is inspired by Germany’s bottle deposit system. In this system, while buying something that is made up of plastic, when the bottle or any product is returned, they get the deposit back by applying this idea to all products made up of plastic by including the deposit inside the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and by allowing contracted local garbage collectors to handle it and encouraging vendors to collect their own garbage, and then the government can allow recycling private companies to recycle it. It ‘s to be noted that India has the largest scrap market in the form of informal waste collectors .

The critics may argue that building large centrally managed recycling facilities across India would require major investment and administration and that public participation may remain low. However, with gradual implementation and proper awareness, such a system could reduce pollution, create jobs, and turn plastic into an economic value.

written by Aradhya Baheti

the assembly of god church school park street